THE PRONUNCIATION OF OUGH.
The difficulty of applying rules to the pronunciation of our language may be illustrated in two lines, where the combination of the letters ough is pronounced in no less than seven different ways, viz.: as o, uff, off, up, ow, oo, and ock:—
Though the TOUGH COUGH and HICCOUGH PLOUGH me THROUGH,
O’er life’s dark LOUGH my course I still pursue.
The following attempts to show the sound of ough, final, are ingenious:—
Though from rough cough or hiccough free,
That man has pain enough
Whose wounds through plough, sunk in a slough,
Or lough begin to slough.
’Tis not an easy task to show,
How o, u, g, h, sound; since though,
An Irish lough, an English slough,
And cough, and hiccough, all allow
Differ as much as tough and through,
There seems no reason why they do.
“Husband,” says Joan, “’tis plain enough
That Roger loves our daughter;
And Betty loves him too, although
She treats his suit with laughter.
“For Roger always hems and coughs,
While on the field he’s ploughing;
Then strives to see between the boughs,
If Betty heeds his coughing.”
The following jeu d’esprit, entitled “A Literary Squabble on the pronunciation of Monckton Milnes’s Title,” is stated to have been the production of Lord Palmerston:—
The Alphabet rejoiced to hear,
That Monckton Milnes was made a peer;
For in the present world of letters,
But few, if any, were his betters.
So an address, by acclamation,
They voted, of congratulation.
And O U G H T and N
Were chosen to take up the pen,
Possessing each an interest vital
In the new Peer’s baronial title.
’Twas done in language terse and telling,
Perfect in grammar and in spelling.
But when ’twas read aloud—oh, mercy!
There sprung up such a controversy
About the true pronunciation
Of said baronial appellation.
The vowels O and U averred
They were entitled to be heard.
The consonants denied the claim,
Insisting that they mute became.
Johnson and Walker were applied to,
Sheridan, Bailey, Webster, tried too;
But all in vain—for each picked out
A word that left the case in doubt.
O, looking round upon them all,
Cried, “If it be correct to call
T H R O U G H throo,
H O U G H must be Hoo;
Therefore there must be no dispute on
The question, we should say Lord Hooton.”
U then did speak, and sought to show
He should be doubled, and not O,
For sure if ought and awt, then nought on
Earth could the title be but Hawton.
H, on the other hand, said he,
In cough and trough, stood next to G,
And like an F was then looked oft on,
Which made him think it should be Hofton.
But G corrected H, and drew
Attention other cases to:
Lough, Rough and Chough, more than enough
To prove O U G H spelled uff,
And growled out in a sort of gruff tone
They must pronounce the title Hufton.
N said emphatically No;
For D O U G H is Doh,
And though (look there again) that stuff
At sea for fun, they nickname Duff,
He should propose they took a vote on
The question should it not be Hoton?
Besides, in French ’twould have such force,
A Lord must be haut ton, of course.
High and more high contention rose,
From words they almost came to blows,
Till S, as yet, who had not spoke,
And dearly loved a little joke,
Put in his word, and said, “Look here,
Plough in this row must have a share.”
At this atrocious pun, each page
Of Johnson whiter grew with rage.
Bailey looked desperately cut up,
And Sheridan completely shut up.
Webster, who is no idle talker,
Made a sign signifying Walker.
While Walker, who had been used badly,
Shook his old dirty dog-ears sadly.
But as we find in prose or rhyme,
A joke, made happily in time,
However poor, will often tend
The hottest argument to end,
And smother anger in a laugh,
So S succeeded with his chaff,
Containing, as it did, some wheat,
In calming this fierce verbal heat.
Authorities were all conflicting,
And S there was no contradicting.
P L O U G H was Plow
Even enough was called enow,
And no one who preferred enough
Would dream of saying “Speed the Pluff.”
So they considered it was wise
With S to make a compromise,
To leave no loop to hang a doubt on
By giving three cheers for Lord Houghton (Howton).